Da Yu ling oolong in danger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oGeHyQmVFchttp://bonteavant.com/ I discovered this video on youtube, and this blogspot and online shop, and the video shows a sad fact that this farm is deemed illegal by the chinese government, that produces 200 kg of the real deal best Da Yu Ling oolong. I am drinking Da Yu Ling, from Dragon Teahouse now, 105 version, it is a great oolong, it is handpicked taiwanese style, but lately I tried Da Yu Ling from houde, teafromtaiwan, DTA from dragon teahouse, all of them were very diffrent, I think they are certanly not 100% da yu ling from a single teafarm, I think it is almost impossible to find such a thing. These taiwanese high mountain oolongs should be cherished and protected and organically farmed, it is the best in green ball shaped oolong category

Oni wrote: I think they are certainly not 100% da yu ling from a single teafarm, I think it is almost impossible to find such a thing.

That has been my assumption too. Real Lishan as well. The real stuff is snatched up very fast before it even reaches market. Often by brokers from Hong Kong, who then resell to rich businessmen in China. A tiny amount trickles down/is reserved for well known tea peoples in Taiwan. That's why I often refer to tea from these places as unknown hmt.

And even when some company puts hands on precious oolong, they usually blend it with inferior stuff, and sell it as the highest quality. This can happen only because there is no real quality control in the chinese tea market, they should pass some heavy duty serious laws to protect the origin of teas, and great teas should never be blended, only sold in it`s pure form.

Oni wrote: This can happen only because there is no real quality control in the chinese tea market, they should pass some heavy duty serious laws to protect the origin of teas, and great teas should never be blended, only sold in it`s pure form.

Some local taiwanese vendors/tea groups have started to do this for a while now. They keep strict records of all steps from harvesting to end of the finishing steps of processing. They provide very specific information such as harvest date, exact location, where it was processed etc etc. The charts are very impressive with the amount of detail they provide. What you get is what you order 100% (at least that is what they guarantee). Unfortunately most of this is not available yet for the western market but I see it surfacing in the near future.

Oni wrote: This can happen only because there is no real quality control in the chinese tea market, they should pass some heavy duty serious laws to protect the origin of teas, and great teas should never be blended, only sold in it`s pure form.

Some local taiwanese vendors/tea groups have started to do this for a while now. They keep strict records of all steps from harvesting to end of the finishing steps of processing. They provide very specific information such as harvest date, exact location, where it was processed etc etc. The charts are very impressive with the amount of detail they provide. What you get is what you order 100% (at least that is what they guarantee). Unfortunately most of this is not available yet for the western market but I see it surfacing in the near future.

hmm, why wouldn't this be available to the 'world' market, assuming an online presence?

And would not the producer/processor/tea master be the actual source of any verifiable records...not a vendor/club?

Wh&yel-appr... wrote:hmm, why wouldn't this be available to the 'world' market, assuming an online presence?

It is, you just have to know where to look, and be able to read chinese.

Wh&yel-appr... wrote:And would not the producer/processor/tea master be the actual source of any verifiable records...not a vendor/club?

They are the source. And they are the tea group/club. And their profits are tied closely to the vendor. It is called a collaboration. Accountability can not really happen if members of each step are not linked well together.....

So are you all saying that the Lishan oolong sold by Floating Leaves, Tea from Taiwan, Tea Masters, Hou De, & other vendors specializing in Tawainese high mountain oolong are selling fake Lishan & Da Yu Ling?? All these vendors sell to "westerners." That would be interesting. So have you then tasted real Li Shan & know how to tell the difference? I'm curious Whatever I'm buying I really like, no matter what it is

It seems most of the discussion here deviated from the original topic from the youtube and blog (farm is deemed illegal by government).

A lot of high quality high mountain oolong is grown in very good ecosystems - which are, ecosystems that shouldn't be under human cultivation from the beginning, as believed by many people. For the past decade or even longer, Taiwan government has been planning to take back some state-owned land from farmers and restore them to natural forests. This, I believe, is not a bad thing, but very hard to do. When people have already settled down and put in decades of efforts in cultivation, it's hard, and probably cruel to ask them to leave the lands alone.

Since it's hard, and somewhat politically incorrect to take back lands from farmers, Taiwan government is also planning to close some plantations affiliated to government, among which, the Fu Shou Shan farm, probably the best producer of Li Shan oolong.

So it's a controversial issue. Would you rather have Da Yu Ling and Li Shan to drink, or would you rather have high mountain forests restored? It's not an easy question. And "both" is not an option, considering there is only so much high mountain land.

rhondabee wrote:So are you all saying that the Lishan oolong sold by Floating Leaves, Tea from Taiwan, Tea Masters, Hou De, & other vendors specializing in Tawainese high mountain oolong are selling fake Lishan & Da Yu Ling?? All these vendors sell to "westerners." That would be interesting. So have you then tasted real Li Shan & know how to tell the difference? I'm curious Whatever I'm buying I really like, no matter what it is

The vendors you mention are probably amongst the best of the online sellers. TFT & TeaMasters are in Taiwan and the others, from what I've read, buy in Taiwan and probably know the farms which the tea comes from. If a vendor is not buying directly from the farms, there is much more possibility that a blended tea might be sold rather than a single farm production. This is one of the reasons I've stuck with TFT. Unless they are lying outright, their teas seem to have a flavor like few others I've tried.

Floating Leaves Tea is based out of Seattle, but I've spoken to Shiuwen (hope I'm spelling that right) several times, and she goes to Taiwan to do her own buying, apparently. At least some of which is apparently directly from the farmer ...

Tea from Taiwan I have tried, and personally I think we should mention Houdeasianarts, because they sell very high quality oolong, in fact I wanted to make and order from them, but they seem to run out of stock quickly.